Thrifty Thursday

I finished my 7x9 granny "rectangle" for Warm Up America.  

I used the rectangle granny square pattern found at crochet cabana.

For me, 8 rounds worked up to the exact dimensions I needed (7in x9in).

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.

Onto the Thrifty Thursday money saving tip(s)...

I worked up a couple of really cute little chore charts for my oldest two kids.  I tailored made them for each of my kids according to their ages, reading skill level, etc.  I wanted them to be able to cross off each chore as they went through the day but having to print out multiple chore charts for the week or month seemed tedious and rather expensive in terms of paper and ink, not too mention wasteful.  The answer: laminating.   I could laminate a chore chart for each kid and hang it up in their room.  That way, they could use a washable marker or crayon and cross off each chore as they went through the day and the next morning we could wipe it clean and start all over again.  That's tip one.  Laminate your kids chore charts, or a template for your shopping list, or even a simple weekly planner.

With that idea in mind, I loaded up each of my little moppets and headed over to the local office supply store.  The laminators there ranged in price from $700 to $40.  I headed over to the local Walmart.   There the only choice of laminator cost $37.   I looked at the sheets of laminating paper.  The self sealing (no laminator needed) cost $10 for 20 sheets.   The ones that were meant to go through the laminator cost half that at around $5 for 20 sheets.  Now on to tip 2.

I didn't like the idea of paying nearly $40 for a laminator for simple home projects.  I really didn't like the idea of paying double for self sealing laminating sheets.  So, I came up with this thrifty little compromise.

I bought the sheets for the machine and decided to utilize my iron in lieu of the laminating press.

If you want to try this at home there are a couple of supplies that you will need.

1. An iron that has a low setting.

2. Thermal laminating sheets.

3. Tissue paper or light cloth to protect your iron.

4. Something to laminate (in this case I used an example of Middle's beautiful artwork monster)

Place your item into the laminating pouch like so...

Cover with the tissue paper.

For my iron I used the acetate/nylon setting.

If your iron doesn't have that option then just use the lowest setting if it gets too hot you'll have bumps and bunches and melted spots.

Press firmly as you iron.  I like to work from the top down and sweep out from the center as I go.

Make sure to get your corners and edges.

After about 10 seconds of work you have a nicely laminated product for a fraction of the cost.

Baby it's COOOLD outside

It's seriously frigid out here today.   It got up to a whopping 4 degrees with a nice windchill of -10.   Needless to say it made my outdoor chores more than a little unpleasant.  

But, the chores are finished now.  The chickens are fed, the cows are fed, the horse is fed and I'm finally at home ready to sit down to a nice cozy cup of cocoa.   It seems like a good day today to once again tackle the "afghan from hell".

Also, I'm working on some more squares for Warm Up America.  So I'll hopefully be posting some of those up here soon as well. 

It's just around the corner

It seems to me that this summer has gone by much faster than last summer. Maybe it's because the weather in my part of the world was extremely pleasant this spring and summer. We had very few days above 80 degrees. No extremely hot days that seem to just drag on forever.

It's already a full week into August. August is always a busy month for us, but especially this August. Coming up we have the fair, my birthday, my daughter's birthday, my father's birthday, my daughters kindergarten open house and a few days later, her first day of school. This is also the time of year when I begin making 7x9in squares for Warm Up America. As soon as I'm finished with the first square I'll post it on here.

If you're interested in crocheting some yourself, you can check out some of the patterns and stitch guides right here: http://www.warmupamerica.org/patterns.html